Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-06-24
A Work Tor the Broom and Shovel
Naught Else Can Do Connection
Between Iniquity and Dirt.
Filthy Parts OF the Great Cities Always
the Most Iniquit0us-NeW York's
Fourth Ward IN Example.
One of the Numerous Blessings of the Sab
bath That 1t Is a Day of Abiution.
Cleanliness Next TO Goodness.
Special to the Gazette.

luOIIluS al tuS 1aDSIASCle Tue heN. {.
Dewitt Talmsge read, previous to the
sermon, portions of Scripture descript-
i've of ancient cities, and gave out the
hymn;
Fields are white the harvest waiting,
Who Will bear the sheaves away:
His text was: "And the men of the city
said unto Elisha, Behold, pray thee, the
situation of this city is pleasant, as my
Lord seeth; but the water is naught, and
the ground barren. And he said, Bring
me new cruise, and put salt therein.
And they brought it to him. And he went
forth unto the springs of the waters, and
cast the salt in there, and said, Thus
saith the Lord, have healed these wa
tiers; there snail not be from thence any
more death or barren land. So the wa
tiers were healed unto this day. "-2
Kings ii: 1872. DR.. Talmage said:
1t IS difficult to estimate how much of
the prosperity and health of city are de-
pendent upon good water. The time
when, through welllaid pipes and from
safe reservoir, sn abundance of water,
from Croton, or Ridgewood, or Schuyl-
kill, is brought into the city, is appro-
priately celebrated with Grafton and py-
rotechnic display. Thank God every day
for clear, bright, beautiful, sparkling va
ter, as it drops in the shower, or losses
up in the fountain, or rushes out a. the
hydrant.
The city of Jericho, Notwithstanding
all its physical and commercial sdvant-
ages, was lacking in this important ele-
ment. There was enough water, bu:
IT WAS DISEASED
and the people were crying out
by reason thereof. Elisha
the prophet comes to the
rescue. He So s: "Get NE new cruise;
I'LL it with salt and bring it TO me-" 50
the cruise of salt was brought to the
prophet, and l see him walking out to
the general reservoir, anG ne takes
that salt and throws 1t into the
reservoir, and 10! al the impuri-
ties depart, through & supernatural
and divine influence, and the waters are
good and fresh and clear, and all the peo-
pie clap their hands and lift up their faces
in the glsdneSs. Water for Jericho-Clear,
bright, beautiful, God-giVen water.
AT different times i have pointed out
TO you she fountains of municipal corrup-
lion, and this morning 1 propose to show
you what are the means for the rectifica-
ton OF those fountains. There are four
or five kinds Of salt that have cleansing
tendency. So far as God may help me,
shall bring cruise of salt to the work,
and empty it into the great reservoir of
municipal crime, sin and shame, ignor-
ance and abOminatiOn.
In this work of cleansing cur cities,
have first TO remark, that there is G work
for the broom and the shovel that moth
ing else can do. There always has been
on intimate connection between iniquity
and dirt The filthy parts OF the great
cities are always the most Ubiquitous
parts. The cutters and the payements
of the Fourth ward, New York, illustrate
and symbolic the character of the people
in the Fourth ward.
The first thing that g bad man does
when he is converted is thoroughly to
wash himself. There were, this morning,
on the way to the different churches,
thousands of men in proper apparel
who, before their conversion, were unit
in their Sabbath dress. When on the
Sabbath / see a man uncleanly in his
dress, my suspicious in regard to his
MORAL CHARACTER ARE AROUSED,
and they are always well founded. SO as
to allow no excuse for lack of eblutioD,
God has cleft the continents with
rivers and lakes, and has sunk five great
oceans, and all the world ought to be
clean. Away, then, with the dirt from
our cities, not only because the physical
health needs an addition, but because ell
the great moral and religious interests of
the cities demand it as a positive neces-
Sity. a filthy city always has been and
always will be wicked city.
Through the upturniDg Of the earth for
great improvement our city could not be
expected to be ss clean as usual, but for
the iliimitable dirt of Brooklyn for the
last six months there is nc excuse. II is
not merely d matter Of dust IN the eyes,
and mud for the shoes, and of stencil for
the nostriis, but OF morals tor the soul.
Another corrective influence that we
would bring to bear upon the evils OF our
great cities is Christian printing press.
The newspapers Of any place are the test
Of its morality or immortality. The news
boy who runs along the street with
q roll of papers under his arm is q tre-
mendous force that cannot be turned
aside nor resisted, and at his every step
the city is elevated or degraded. This
hungry, all-devouring American mind
must have something to read, and upon
editors, and authors, and book publish
ers, and parents and teachers rest the re-
sponsiDility of what they shall read
Almost every man you meet has book in
his hand or 8 newspaper IN mis- pocket.
What book is it you have in your hand?
Whist newspaper is it you have in your
pocket. Ministers may preach, reform
ers may plan, philsnthrOp!sts may toll for
the elevation of the suffering and the
criminal, but until al the newspapers Of
the land and ali the booksellers Of the
land set themselves against IN iniquitous
literature-until then we shall be fighting
AGAINST FEARFUL ODDS.
Every time the cylinders of our crest pub
fishing houses turn they make the earth
quake. From them gees forth thought
like 81 angel of light TO feed and bless
the world, or ike an angel of darkness TO
smite i with corruption aud sin and
shame and death. May God by His ON
nipotent spirit purity and elevate the
American printing press:
20 on further and say that we must
depend upon the school for a grea: deal
OF correcting influence. Community can
no more afford 10 have ignorant men in
its midst than it can afford to have I'M
caged hyenas. Ignorance is the mother
OF hydTs-headed crime. Thirty-niDe per
cent. of all the criminals of New York csa
neither read nor write. Intellectual dark
ness is generally the precursor of moral
darkness. know there are educated
outlaws-men who, through their sharp
ness of intellect, are made more danger
Gus. They use their fue penmanship in
signing other peoples names, and their
science in ingenious burglsries, and their
fine manners in adroit lioertinism. They